Lights in the darkness

Every time I see a news report of some massive illegal drug and drug asset seizure, it seems to me more proof not of a successful drug policy, but of a massive failure. Happily, a few politicians are finally starting to admit this, including Uruguayan president Jose Mujica.

According to "Uruguay marijuana legalisation: Details unveiled," under new laws, which begin this week, despite opposition from the United Nations, the production, sale and use of marijuana will be legal in Uruguay, where this popular drug will be regulated similarly to cigarettes and alcohol (2014).

Grow it at home in Uruguay

Uruguay is not the only country rethinking its approach towards dealing with the problems that come with all popular recreational drugs. Several US states have also moved to legalize the personal use of marijuana, including Washington D.C., but the South American nation of Uruguay has gone further than most. The only country I can think of that that has more radically changed its drug policy is Portugal, which in 2001 decriminalized the personal use of all drugs, including heroin and amphetamines, known as yaa baa in Thailand.

You have probably already inferred from my opening sentences in the introduction that I think President Mujica's has the right idea. First, the policy of banning some popular drugs that a lot of decent citizens want to use seems to me a massive failure: countries like the US and Thailand have made one set of addictive drugs illegal for many years, but in neither country has demand from ordinary people decreased. Decades after governments made many drugs illegal, both the US and Thailand are full of those same drugs. And the result in practice has been disastrous: drugs are more expensive, so crime, especially theft to get money, is higher because of government policy; the profit margins are massive because of official policy, so the business has fallen into the hands of mafia scum, who are being richly rewarded by official policy; the high prices also encourage corruption of officials at all levels, from police, to court judges, to politicians, which is bad for the entire nation; because their drug use is illegal, it is more difficult for users with health problems or who want to stop to get the help they need; and finally, ordinary, decent citizens, the children of millions of worried parents, are arrested and given criminal records for life when they have done no harm to anyone else. All of these show that making some drugs illegal actually makes every drug problem much worse.

But the problem with the drug laws in most countries is much more serious. They not only make drug problems in society much worse, the laws are seriously unjust and irrational. I think they are irrational because alcohol is a much worse drug for harming others than are any of the illegal drugs: alcohol, in the form of beer, champagne, whisky and the like, tears families apart when it causes traffic accidents; alcohol is a major cause of violence, from pub and street fights, to drunk husbands or boyfriends bashing women and children; and alcohol causes serious health problems which reduce national productivity. Of course, all of the illegal drugs are also bad for the users, but they do not seem to cause as much harm to other people. And the only morally just reason for making something illegal is that it threatens or harms others.

Although they are, and I guess always have been, very popular with human beings in every society, I think drugs are bad news, but I also hope that more countries start to apply some reason and justice to dealing with this problem, and that they stop repeating the same policy is a well proven failure.

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Reference

Uruguay marijuana legalisation: Details unveiled. (2014, May 3). BBC News Latin America and Caribbean. Retrieved May 5, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27265310